iOS, Android, PC, Mac •
It’s been awhile since I’ve been on the Hearthstone bandwagon. I know it’s got polish on top of its polish and that, as far as digital CCGs go, it’s still a pretty great game. Still, there’s something that drove me away. I think it was the bloat of expansion after expansion and the focus on esports that made me feel like casual play wasn’t really something Hearthstone did well anymore. I just don’t have enough time to research a game in order to play it well. Also, I have Race for the Galaxy now, thank you very much.
Still, it’s a big money maker for Blizzard and, as such, they keep showing it love. In a few weeks it will be getting a major update that adds a couple of new features that might make it easier for old farts like me to get back into it.
With every CCG, the big question is always, “How much is this going to cost me?”. Hearthstone offers both arena mode and daily quests for cash inflow, but getting those quests requires going out and playing strangers who probably have more cards and more time to deck build than you. With the upcoming update, that’s not going to be a problem any more. Instead, you’ll be able to hook up with friends to complete daily quests, which means you won’t ever have to battle strangers again, unless you want to.
The other big update is the ability to share decks. Not cards, mind you, but deck lists. Thus, you can copy and send your deck to someone else, and it will automatically populate with cards in their version, allowing them to play around with your deck. If you’re a net-decker like I was, this will save a lot of time importing popular decks rather than going back-and-forth building them yourself. If you don’t have a card that’s in the imported list, it will be grayed out and will offer you suggestions for a replacement. Easy-peasy.
When will this update land? In typical Blizzard fashion, there is no set date, simply “in the coming weeks”. I’ll keep my eyes open, and, who knows, maybe it’s time I give Hearthstone another chance.
- Hearthstone for iOS Universal, free
- Hearthstone for Android, free
- Hearthstone for Kindle, free
- Hearthstone for PC/Mac, free
@Neumannium If you decide to play again feel free to add me if you’re in the NA region (Heller#11712). I do have a lot of cards but we could always play some “wild” deck roulette where we let the deck editor randomly build our decks for us.